Tuesday, November 18, 2014

We’ve said before that floral design is an art and
recently we once again had the opportunity to pair our flowery art with its
more traditional counterpart, paintings and mixed media designs at the
Cheltenham Center of the Arts’ second annual Art in Bloom, Floral
Interpretations of Paintings.

For this year’s April 26th event five talented
Stein Your Florist Co. designers, as well as several more of the Philadelphia
area’s floral artists exhibited their floriated interpretations of a variety of
masterfully created paintings and mixed media art pieces at the CCA’s exhibit.

Stein Your Florist Co. owner/operator and designer Patrick Kelly chose to
interpret “Nature’s Bones” by Paul Gorka. He created the
floral portion of his design with blue delphinium, dendrobium orchids, Spanish
moss and pothos. His design used a lot of mixed medias, awarding him Best in
Show for mixed media design. The drift wood at the base was from his own
backyard as well as the tall pussy willow branches. The tree branches and small
pinecones were gathered from the grounds around the art center, the stones were
from the pond in our flower shop, the large pinecones were from a trip to Yosemite
State Park and the resin skull was a local flea market find. Patrick had a
wonderful time creating his piece and said that the painting was the first one
to catch his eye upon entering the art center.

Untitled 1

Stein Your Florist Co. designer George Emberger chose to
interpret “Untitled 1” by Edwina Brennan. He said he was drawn to the pops of
natural color and wispy freedom juxtaposed to the linear grid work in the
design. George constructed his own three-dimensional grid of river cane with
floral bursts of color in roses, tulips, pincushion protea, solidego, Spanish
moss, ferns, seeded eucalyptus, and sprays of bear grass.

Road of the Flower

George also hosted a behind the scenes seminar before the
main Art in Bloom exhibit. He did a live interpretation of “Road of the Flower”
by Merle Spandorfer, designing for an audience, answering questions, and
describing his interpretive process while he created his art piece. He chose a
bold black container and curvaceous black branches to make the “road” of the
painting pop in his design. The painting’s colors were picked up in the flowers
George used: ginger, gerbera daisies,
alstroemeria, chrysanthemums, leptospermum, and springeri. The painting’s
creator was there for the live demonstration and was fascinated by George’s
interpretation and design process.

Living Room - Fort Lauderdale 1995

Co-operations manager of our Burlington, NJ location and
designer Jessica Kelly chose to interpret “Living Room – Fort Lauderdale 1995” by Howard
Silberthau. She was drawn to
this painting’s deceptive simplicity, appearing as a blank canvas from afar but
boasting wonderful detail and linear precision up close. Jessica chose to
interpret the painting as an unfinished canvas, paying homage to the evening’s
theme and created her floral design as an unfinished painting itself. Working
with liatris, roses, lilies, hydrangea, cymbidium orchids, gladiolus, iris,
larkspur, bells of Ireland, and peacock feathers (a signature piece in many of Jessica’s
designs) she created a massive arrangement to compliment the painting’s equally
massive size. Some of the arrangement’s flowers were hand painted to convey the
idea of a work in progress and it was accented with brushes, a painter’s
palette, a paint splattered drop cloth and other painter’s tools to finish the
effect. Jessica’s design was awarded Most Creative Floral Interpretation of a
Painting.

Under the Microscope

Co-operations
manager of our Burlington, NJ location, head of social media and designer
Jennifer Kelly chose to interpret “Under the Microscope” by Barbara Straussberg.
Jennifer, who has a bachelor’s degree in bioscience and biotechnology from
Drexel University, said that “this painting reminded [her] of [her] college
days in the lab, staring into a microscope at the various minute wonders of a
world we rarely get to see.” Playing on the “under the microscope” theme
Jennifer created her design as three oversized microscope slides, complete with
labels and floral specimens. The “Succulent Plantae Sp.” slide was designed
with live succulent plants, fresh cut pin cushion protea, and accented with
Spanish and reindeer moss and dried foliage. The “Amaryllis Hippeastrum, c.s.”
slide was made with roses, pincushion protea, hyacinth blooms wired as though
floral flagellum, eucalyptus, hypericum berries, tulips, cut succulents,
reindeer moss, floral pods, and a cross-section of an amaryllis bulb. Finally,
the “Punica Granatum, c.s.” slide was created with tulips, amaryllis, roses,
pincushion protea, cut succulents, ranunculus, reindeer moss, loops of
hypericum berries, Brussel sprouts, savoy cabbage, purple cabbage, and a
cross-section of a pomegranate. Jennifer had the opportunity to meet the
painting’s creator and she was blown away by her floral interpretation.
Jennifer was awarded Best in Show for Fun and Fantastic Design.

Ruby and Friends

Our final
representation from Stein Your Florist Co. was created by freelance
designer Denise Emberger, who chose to interpret “Ruby and Friends” by Gillian
Bedford. Loving the beach, Denise focused not on the children in the painting,
but on their surroundings. She stacked bubble bowls, mimicking the frothy waves
of the ocean, atop a piece of driftwood and filled them with seashells,
starfish and mosses resembling kelp and other sea life. She completed her
design with beautiful green cymbidium orchids, pincushion protea and a large spray
of bear grass that looked as though it was plucked from the sand dunes.

Our designers have been invited back to participate in the
CCA’s event once again next spring. Two weeks prior we will draw for spots to
select from the art on display and plan our designs. We are looking forward to
another inspirational affair and we hope you will join us.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Floral design is an art in itself. A knife or floral shears are
our brushes, the flowers our paints, and a vase, a basket, the entire world is our
canvas. We paint and sculpt with fresh blooms, creating magnificent
masterpieces; our floral designs flow like lyrical sonnets. Some have referred
to floral design as a craft, but it is indeed an art.

﻿﻿

"Woman Eating Ice Cream" by Jane Rovinsinterpreted by Patrick Kelly

Last April the Cheltenham Center for the Arts presented their
first annual event, Art in Bloom, Floral Interpretations of Paintings. Four
talented Stein Your Florist Co. designers, as well as several more of the
Philadelphia area’s floral artists exhibited their floriated interpretations of
a variety of masterfully created paintings and mixed media art pieces at the
CCA’s exhibit.

Stein Your Florist Co. owner/operator and designer Patrick
Kelly choose to interpret “Woman Eating Ice Cream” by Jane Rovins.
He created his design with birds of paradise, orange asiatic lilies, and blue
roses with accents of limonium and tropical foliage. His use of colors picked
up on the painting beautifully and the choice of exotic birds of paradise paid
homage to the woman’s ethnic headdress, also accented by the traditional African cloth he draped across the pedestal. We had the pleasure of speaking with the
artist at the exhibit and she told us the story of the woman she saw at a café that
inspired her painting. It was a joy meeting her and having the opportunity to
appreciate each other’s art.

﻿

"Shaman Shapeshifting" by Rebekah Higginsinterpreted by Jessica Kelly

﻿

Co-operations manager of our Burlington, NJ location and designer
Jessica Kelly choose to interpret “Shaman Shapeshifting” by
Rebekah Higgins. She was drawn to this painting, whose colors are not
typically found in the floral world, and accepted the challenge of the interpretation.
Imagining the world this painted creature must have come from, Jessica created
it in miniature. Lush succulents were carefully planted amongst a faux deer
antler and accented by fresh white calla lilies, veronica, curly willow, bits of wax
flower and seeded eucalyptus. We also had the pleasure of meeting this artist,
who was thrilled with Jessica’s interpretation (she snapped about a million
photos of it) and this floral piece was purchased by one of the attendees to
help raise funds for the CCA’s cause.

﻿

"The Quandry" by Rob Kasprzakinterpreted by Jennifer Kelly

Co-operations manager of our Burlington, NJ location, head of
social media and designer Jennifer Kelly choose to interpret “The Quandry” by
Bob Kasprzak. The painting is indicative of her style with its eclectic and
lavish features. Drawing on the worldly elements of the painting, Jennifer
added her own diverse elements to her piece, including a globe, a Quan Yin
statue, pottery from China and saris from India. The arrangement was positioned
to be an extension of the painting, as though the woman was gazing at it and created
to look as if it could be in the room with her. The flowers used included roses,
hydrangea, delphinium, heather, hypericum berries, cymbidium and dendrobium
orchids, solidego, stock, hanging amaranthus and eucalyptus. Stands of crystals
and jewels were added for an extravagant feel. This piece was awarded Best in
Show for Mix Media Design for 2013’s Art in Bloom exhibit.

"Stress Relief and Beauty" by Ydalinda Olivierainterpreted by Michelle Erikson

Our final representation from Stein Your Florist Co. was created
by designer Michelle Erikson. Michelle choose to interpret “Stress Relief and
Beauty” by Ydalinda Oliviera, a mixed media piece. Michelle loved the lines of
this artwork and aimed to capture that in her floral design. The graceful curve
of the flamingo’s neck is mirrored by the arrangement’s armature of larkspur
and snapdragon. The body of the bird was recreated in protea, antherium,
cymbidium orchids and more snapdragon with background accents of tropical
foliage and craspedia balls. The vase was filled with delphinium to represent
the watery habitat of the flamingo.

Our designers have been invited back to participate in the CCA’s
event once again. Two weeks prior we will draw for spots to select from the art
on display and plan our designs. This year’s event is even more poignant with
the Philadelphia Flower Show being held in early March boasting a theme of
Articulture, pairing with area art museums for an Art in Bloom style event of
their own. We are looking forward to another inspirational affair and we hope
you will join us.

This year’s Art in Bloom will be on Saturday, April 26, 2014,
5-7pm and includes an her d’oeuvres, wine &
beer reception.

We are captivated by the beauty of flowers every day. This blog is dedicated to the moments when we are completely enthralled with the joy of flowers. Thank you for partaking in these moments with us.

Your authors are the expert designers and staff of Stein Your Florist Co. and Steins at Sunset Florist. Formed in 1887 in Philadelphia, PA, Steins is the city's oldest florist and has been named Philadelphia's Favorite Florist. Our vision is to share our love of flowers with the world, while maintaining socially and ecologically responsible practices.

Flowers make the moment... Let us make a moment for you at Stein Your Florist Co.